brief

Public food transfers during a pandemic: Insights from Bangladesh

by Shyamal Chowdhury,

Muhammad Nahian Bin Khaled,

Kalyani Raghunathan and

Shahidur Rashid

ifpri policy brief | 2021 | Pages: 5

DOI : https://doi.org/10.2499/9780896294080

Open Access | CC BY-4.0

Citation

Chowdhury, Shyamal; Bin Khaled, Muhammad Nahian; Raghunathan, Kalyani; and Rashid, Shahidur. 2021. Public food transfers during a pandemic: Insights from Bangladesh. IFPRI Policy Brief February 2021. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/9780896294080

Public food transfer program provide a lifeline for the poor in both high- and low-income countries, and many countries stepped these up in response to COVID-19. But little is known about how effective these programs have been in reaching the poor during the crisis. This brief reviews the findings of an evaluation of Bangladesh’s Food Friendly Program, pointing to the difficulties encountered during the pandemic and lessons to help these program perform better in future crises.